The present invention generally relates to a fuel cell. More specifically, the present invention relates to a fuel cell for generating an electromotive force in a power generator by supplying hydrogen and oxygen (air) as fuel gases and an electric device using the fuel cell.
A fuel cell that is a device for generating an electromotive force in a power generator by supplying hydrogen and oxygen (air) as fuel gases has been hitherto proposed. The fuel cell of this type ordinarily has a structure that an electrolyte film (proton conductive film) is sandwiched in between gas electrodes to obtain a desired electromotive force. Such a fuel cell has been expectedly applied to an electric vehicle or a hybrid type vehicle and progressively developed to be put to practical use. The fuel cell has been employed for the vehicle such as a motor vehicle. In addition thereto, the fuel cell has been studied to apply to new uses completely different from the uses of vehicles such as motor vehicles by making use of an advantage that its lightweight and compact form can be easily realized. For instance, a fuel cell which can be used as a new power source in place of a dry cell or a rechargeable battery which has been used as a power source of a portable electric device has been studied.
A compact fuel cell capable of being incorporated in various kinds of electric devices has been progressively studied in various ways and some types of fuel cells have been already proposed. Any of them has a battery itself made compact, however, it is not necessarily satisfactory from an aspect that the fuel cell is incorporated in the electric device. For instance, when the previously proposed fuel cell is incorporated in the electric device, a cell housing part is provided in the device side like ordinary dry cells, various kinds of secondary batteries such as lithium-ion secondary batteries, and the like. Thus, a mechanism for fixing the cell or a connector for wiring or the like is provided therein.
Since the fuel cell needs fuel gas, fuel piping needs to be provided to supply fuel. Since the piping is necessary, a mechanism for preventing the leakage of fuel from the piping needs to be added.
When each of the fuel cells which have been conventionally proposed is applied to the electric device, particularly to a compact portable electric device, not only the entire part of the device is hardly made compact, but also the design of the device is subjected to a restriction. Furthermore, manufacturing steps upon manufacturing the device are complicated.
When the fuel cell is incorporated in the electric device, someone may utilize a structure that the power generator of the fuel cell is incorporated in a device main body and a fuel storage part, for instance, a hydrogen tank is separately mounted on the device main body. In this case, the power generator needs to be arranged near the hydrogen tank and the device undergoes a great restriction in its design. When the power generator is separated from the fuel storage part, piping serving as a fuel passage needs to be provided between them. Consequently, piping parts such as tubes needs to be drawn around in the device. Thus, the number of parts is increased and the form of the device itself is enlarged, so that an assembly work is complicated.